Management and Ethical Responsibility

15 December, 2008

All eyes are on you. The ethics you display at work are going to have a direct impact on the way your employees work. Today’s troubling economy has resulted in hundreds of lost jobs, decreased incomes, and vanishing bonuses and raises.

Take a few moments to ask yourself a few questions in an effort to assess your own ethics in the workplace:

1. Do I have a specific set of beliefs? If so, what are they? Do you think about your beliefs as you work towards the goals you have set for yourself in life?

2. What are my goals? Do you have them written down so that you can remind yourself of them whenever necessary? Having goals will encourage you to work hard and make sure that everything we do is of the highest quality.

3. Do I need to enhance my skills? Are there skills that you need to develop in order to reach your ultimate goals? Do you need to take a few classes or ask for additional training? Are you committed to developing those skills so that you can move forward?

4. What are my standards? Do you have a set level of standards that directly reflects the ethics you have put in place for yourself? Would you prefer mediocrity or only the highest quality of work? Is there ever a time to make an exception?

5. Do I practice what I preach? Do you tell your employees to set standards, deliver high quality work, and treat each other respectfully and then give them a model to look at? Do you act the way you want others to act and treat them as you would be treated?

Take some time each evening to look back at your day and ask yourself what you could have done differently. Think about what you can do the next day to improve yourself.

Mark Williams

Mark Williams is a learning and development professional, using business psychology and multiple intelligences to create fascinating and quickly-identifiable learning initiatives in the real-world business setting. Mark’s role at MTD is to ensure that our training is leading edge, and works closely with our trainers to develop the best learning experiences for all people on learning programmes. Mark designs and delivers training programmes for businesses both small and large and strives to ensure that MTD’s clients are receiving the very best training, support and services that will really make a difference to their business.